Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn 

Hundreds of bees in the purple clover 
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn 
But only one mother the wide world over
~ ~ George Cooper

A very happy (alas, belated) Mother’s Day to all our moms! Hope you liked what
your children made for you.
May, is a month centred on the celebration of mothers and motherhood. Moms, you
are also sharing the month which hosts your special day, with the birthdays of such
influential musicians as Johannes Brahms and Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky!

May’s Trivia

1. 5th – Children’s Day in Japan!

2. 10th – (USA) Mother’s Day & very importantly,’ National Clean Up Your Room Day’
(hee, hee!)
3. 14th and most weirdly, from the USA, ‘National Dance Like a Chicken Day’
4. 24th (1844) – the first ‘Morse Code’ message was sent! Viva, internet and IM!
5. 29th – (US) President John F. Kennedy’s birthday.

FROM THE OFFICE

We are prepared for another exciting month of events, functions and special
occasions. A bittersweet moment - customary this time of year at the
Montessori school, we are preparing to bid farewell to our graduands who
will leave us in July for Primary (Grade) school adventures! As sad as we are
to see them go, we are proud of what they have accomplished (and shall
continue to, up to their last day of school with us). We wish them well. We are also most
appreciative of their parents who trusted us to educate their children over a period of three
years or more, allowing for us to plan and implement a preparatory programme that was void
of pressure to perform.

Communicable Diseases 
Chicky Pox: Role of the Spot Order – Title Awards - Shi Hui (awarded!)

Staff: we salute Shanika and Shamali for the brevity in going forth to acquire the title. They
grin and bear and say: “we’ll be back in a few days to collect our title!”

Not to make light of the situation, we hope that the following will aid in
reminding you of our position and action being taken on the above, as
cases of contracting this illness are being brought to our notice. The
numbers are being monitored to ensure a manageable situation. If you
have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to
contact the school office and meanwhile here is the link to a site that explains Chicken
Pox rather well:
http://www.kidshealth.org.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/contentpage/pi_id/194#block_9
15
1. We are committed to taking practicable precautionary measures to minimize the
chance of entry and spread of contagious illness in the school.
2. Despite the above, there is always the possibility of the entry and subsequent
spread of a disease. Just the past two mornings have yielded cases of chicken
pox that were detected during the pre-admittance to classes, health-checks.
3. With regards to Hand Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD), it is deemed a common
and treatable childhood disease provided it is detected early and the proper
medical care is administered. (Try this for tackling the discomfort – lie on a bed
of ‘Neem’ leaves!)
4. From our experience in dealing with this disease, its surges and resurges, we
have noted that in most cases where the disease proved to be severe to a child,
it was due to other complications, some of which were pre-existing medical
conditions that had compromised the immune system. We therefore urge
parents to inculcate a good personal hygiene routine within their children’s day
to day affairs, ensure healthy eating habits and nutrition that will all contribute
towards safeguarding one’s health. We also advise parents not to unduly shield
their children from natural environments as being in them will help develop the
ability to ward off these diseases through a better immune system.
5. We are required to abide by the following; whenever a communicable disease is
either suspected, in session, or we are told that it has been contracted by a
child in the school:

• (If in session) isolating the child by placing him/her temporarily in the

sick-bay, isolation room or the principal’s office.
• Inform the parents to bring him/her for medical examination and keep
that child isolated until he/she has been taken.
• Check other children in the environment for signs of fever, rashes or
blisters on palms and soles, to attempt to spot those symptoms
associated with HFMD/ Chicken Pox. If found these children to also be
isolated immediately and the above procedure followed
with due sensitivity extended to the children affected
and to the situation in general

6. We also insist that if a child has contracted a communicable disease

(HFMD included) that he or she be kept at home until a doctor has
certified that a full recovery has been made (please refer to our
handbook). We must receive a medical certificate that has been
issued by a licensed medical practitioner in Singapore, stating that
the child who fell ill, is fit to resume school.
Siblings of infected children who dwell within the same premises
are asked to stay away from school too, until the infectious period is ended.

7. Disinfection of premises: children arriving in school walk through a

cloth which contains disinfectant solution. The school compound
is regularly disinfected through the day and the children’s hands
are sanitized at arrival and prior to the consumption of snack.
Children are also reminded to wash their hands with soap and
water after using the washroom facilities.
 8. The question of routine daily health checks during arrivals has been reviewed by
us and they will continue to be conducted when cases of our students
contracting contagious diseases are reported to us and/or governmental
directives are issued to this effect.
Routine health checks will be suspended following a continuous period of not less
than two weeks within which cases of HFMD or any other communicable disease
have not been reported or detected.
Our procedures have been discussed with and reviewed
by public health officials who are in agreement with
the above. Needless to mention, teachers will act
swiftly by alerting the administration, when they see
that a child is unwell in class.
From our experience, we are of the view that conducting
routine and daily health checks regardless of the above does not necessarily
reduce the chance of an infectious disease either entering or spreading in a
school population. For example, a child who is in line waiting to be examined may
well come in contact with another child or children who may already be infected
and possibly not show obvious symptoms for parents to retain him/her at home
and to visit a doctor. We do not however intend to negate the importance of
health checks when they are needed nor profess to be experts in the medical
field!

More to the point - we would like to rest assured in knowing that

parents will exercise their judgement (through observation) and
not send their child/children to school when there is reason to
suspect any sort of illness. You would know best when your child
appears to be out of sorts which would in most cases be the prelude to an
illness. Some investigative questions on your part in these situations could
determine if your child is fit to attend school, needs to rest at home or visit a
doctor. (The contagious Monday and post holiday ‘blues’ being exceptions of
course!) Moreover, these are judgement calls that our staff will not be able to
make by merely carrying out a fever scan and a general inspection of a student.

We have no doubt that it is your intention as it is ours, to cooperate with one

another in ensuring that children are kept safe through vigilance, maintenance
of good health and hygienic practices.
Caramba!!
Late again!
Punctuality and leaving early

With the ongoing health checks at arrival, we request that you make an extra effort to
be on time, so that your child may fully benefit from their time in school. On the same
note, we also request that you avoid taking your child out of school before the end of a
session. While we understand that emergencies and unforeseen circumstances may
arise, we ask that you allow your child to complete the entire session at every
available opportunity. Work in the classroom begins immediately after the children
enter it and continues till the ‘goodbye’ song is sung!
 One liner to tickle you before the next bit of news:

Q: What did the little light bulb say to its Mum?

A: I wuv you watts and watts.

Contact Details
Don’t
forget to Most communications with parents by the administrative and teaching
update me! staff is via e-mail, so please do inform us via telephone if there is any
change to your e-mail address or other contact information. Most
messages sent by the school contain time sensitive (mostly dates and
times) information so please do keep us updated.

Fees
Please note that the invoices for Term I 2010-11 have been sent. Payment is due no later than
2nd June 2010. Timely payment saves us administrative costs. Thank you.

FROM THE CLASSES (BRIEF)

Botany
We will be studying the types and properties of lamina. The children will
also be introduced to the parts of a root and the kinds of roots.

Celebrations
Vesak Day will be celebrated in class with a presentation and the
children being introduced to the significance of the day.

The water cycle, climatic zones and the weather in general, are also on
the calendar as units for the month of May. In addition to the above,
work will continue in the classrooms in all areas

Generally all engines are firing and we are moving forward, however the absentee rate is
cause for concern and we are adjusting our plans to accommodate children who are missing
several days of school due to Chicken Pox, etc.

Some new joiners are in the classes and the continuing students have adjusted to their
presence quite well.

More in the news for June!

 THE EXTENDED DAY

Parents and a warm welcome to our new friends to the

Extended Day.

The month of April was fun. We started by celebrating April Fools Day! There
were plenty of fun pranks and good hearted humour going around. The
children had fun and so did we! The fun continued throughout the month with the celebration
of Sinhalese and Tamil New Year. As is tradition at Montessori, the children of the Extended
Day made their very own ‘Kiri Bath’ (milk rice) to mark the occasion. We played games that
are usually played during this celebration, including the lime and spoon race, tug of war and
pinning the tail on the elephant. We also sang our very own Sinhalese Folk Songs
(‘Surangani’ and a song about pumpkins and a little rabbit.)

Our unit on Mammals ended very successfully. The children had fun
learning about various types of mammals and so did we. The new unit
for the term is ‘Planets and the Solar System’. We are sure our
children will show the same enthusiasm and interest as they did in our
previous unit. We are planning on using a very special tool to aid us in the
form of a visual presentation, courtesy of the fine folks at Microsoft! We do still welcome
your contributions in the form of reading material or other media. For the month of May, we
will be introducing the planets in our Solar System focusing on Mercury and Venus.

We were busy in the classroom with you gift mums! We made each and every
one with love!

Language – We are working on creative writing, capital letter and

punctuations. We plan to do a little ‘role playing’ and reading to an audience.

Math – We are focusing on the Decimal System (the introduction, layout and bring in
quantities from all four hierarchies). This will be aided by Decimal Card and Bead material.

Before we go, we would like to state how proud we are of our graduates this year.
We will miss you!

Suanne, Sanja, Shanika and Shi Hui

 MANDARIN FROM THE CLASSES

1. We will learn a Mother’s Day nursery rhyme called ‘Mother’s

portrait’.
2. We will learn a new song entitled ‘A Hen’.
3. The children will participate in discussion about the weather and water cycle.
4. We will introduce insects including the fly, bee, butterfly and dragonfly.
5. We are continuing to practice polite conversation.

~ Lao Shi’s: Linda, Yuhong, Chen Qiong, Tao Ying & Guihong

BIAN DANG BAN

1. Topics of discussion for the month: colours and geometrical shapes.
2. We will sing the song ‘colourful world’ and ‘I love you’.
3. We will learn the nursery rhyme ‘The song of the colours’.
4. The children will be introduced to basic punctuation marks.
5. We will have a discussion on Mother’s Day and sing related songs.

EARLY BIAN DANG BAN

1. The children will be introduced to the primary colours.
2. We will learn the nursery rhyme ‘The song of the colours’.
3. Children continue to practice basic strokes.
4. Music and movement involving colours.
5. The children will be introduced to Mother’s Day and will related songs.

Lao Shi’s: Qi Guihong and Linda

HINDI MILAP
• We will learn the names of some flowers in Hindi.
• Children who are new to the programme continue to trace the
sounds and associating the symbols.
• Some have started writing the vowels and numbers 1 to10 in
their journals.
• The children will continue to work with the Letter Boxes, making words, listening to
the sounds and identifying letters.
• Some of the older children continue to work with the Matra Box, learning the
different Matras.
• They are also attempting to identify the Matras within words and reading them
accordingly.
• We will learn to identify the parts of a tree and the parts of a bird
in Hindi.
• As we celebrated Mothers Day, the children will learn a poem
entitled ‘Achchi Ma’.
• Along the with the familiar rhymes and songs such has ‘Main ek
chotti katputli’ and ‘Nani teri morni ko’, the children are
also learning some new rhymes and songs such has ‘Tar tar
mendke’, ‘Kuch din phele ek taal mein’.

Sushmita ~